Parting Ways
by Miss Chang Po
Summary: Angsty 5xSP one-shot. "Perfectly, Agent Dragon." Something flickered and died in her eyes, but Wufei ignored it. "Perfectly." RxR kudasai!


January 8th, 2004  
  
Author's Notes - Argh, I know you guys are going to hate me for this. But, I was really bored last night; looking through some of my old writings and I found an old short story I wrote for my creative writing class in high school (I loved that class, I wrote some awesome stuff in there). Erm, but anyways, I found one short story that I really liked so I spruced it up to fit into the Gundam Wing Universe. And this one is actually pretty short - unlike Nataku-chan's 16-page ficlet. :: sticks her tongue out at her :: Ha, beat you!  
  
Nataku-chan - ::just blows a raspberry::  
  
But anyways, I must warn you it's a bit angst-y, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it anyway. hopefully.  
  
Parting Ways  
  
A Gundam Wing Fan fiction  
  
Will not be shaken And jump into this and Be persuasive Just carry on Make my mind up to go through this or Be firm and sit in silence  
  
"Forfeit" - Chevelle, Wonder What's Next  
  
Isn't it something when time just seems to fly by you at breakneck speeds? It hunts you like a predator at first, slowly and cautiously. Then, when you have some place to be, it is in your face before have time to even realize what happened. For such a non-sentient thing as time, it was amazing how it could take on a life of its own, becoming either your greatest ally or your worst foe.  
  
7:05. Chang Wufei decided that at this point, time was definitely his foe. He scowled down at the silver timepiece strapped around his wrist; hadn't it just read 6:15 a minute ago? The blasted thing had to be broken. However, rather than kick up a fuss about it as he was so wont to do when things he relied on ended up breaking - people included, especially when there was an assignment due - Wufei only shrugged and slipped into his uniform jacket. Stepping away from his desk somewhat reluctantly, he saved his file and logged off of the computer. After that, he quickly exited the Preventers Main Office without a word to anyone. However those who had seen him, and had taken note of the empty desk across from his, knew exactly where he was going.  
  
~~  
  
Evening had come so quickly. The sun, once blaring unbearably down on the city streets, had set some time ago. However, it was not quite dark yet and that bothered Wufei. Having grown up on the colonies, he was accustomed to the environmental system's method of portraying night and day. When it came to night and day, he had always been able to tell the difference.  
  
Here on Earth was quite a different matter. Though the sun had gone down, the city was left in that foggy area between day and night. Though despite nature's apparent confusion, the city street lamps stayed true to their duty flickering on as the slightly disgruntled Preventer passed them by.  
  
7:15. Wufei sighed, rubbing a hand through his jet-black hair. No one at work had ever seen him do so before, as he was apt to keep it in his usual tight ponytail during office hours. However, since no one was around to see him - or make jokes about it - he really didn't care all that much. His face was slightly pale and his expression terribly haggard; in fact everything about him screamed he was in much need of rest, but as always, he took no notice of it.  
  
Although he was in a hurry to reach his destination, invisible weights suddenly seemed to latch onto his legs to impede his progress. He muttered a curse under his breath, glad that no one was around to hear it - it would have made even Heero quirk an eyebrow. No matter how he struggled to move his body faster, it seemingly refused to obey his commands. At this rate, he'd never get there, so why was he even bothering? He could just go back to the office, or better yet, he could go home, lay down and.  
  
"Stop it." Wufei told himself, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. "Just stop it." He stood alone on the street; no one else was around to wonder why he stood talking to himself and if they had, he still wouldn't have cared. "You are not a weakling. You can do this. You are going to do this."  
  
Encouraged by his own gruff words, he began walking again. The weights at his legs vanished, freeing him to pick up his pace. Why bother wasting any more time, he reasoned to himself. If he was going to do it, he may as well hurry up and get it over with, right?  
  
At least that's what he kept repeating to himself as a mantra over and over again.  
  
~~  
  
He entered the hospital cautiously as if entering an enemy compound. The dull, fluorescent lights shone off of the Preventer bade on his jacket. Staring down at it, he cringed uncomfortably; in the light it looked cheap, phony. He felt a hollow, empty feeling rise up in his chest. What if he was the same?  
  
"Excuse me, ma'am. er, sir.?"  
  
Wufei scowled, biting back a curse. Somewhere out there, Duo was probably laughing his ass off.  
  
'If I had my katana for every time.' Rather than finish that thought - he was supposed to prevent violence for crying out loud - Wufei turned his attention to the owner of the voice. A young woman sitting at the receptionist's desk was waving him over, an overly cheerful expression pasted on her face.  
  
After reciting another calming mantra, he squared his shoulders and straightened his jacket as he walked towards her with an 'I'm-an-upkeeper- of-justice-and-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-me-funny-I-won't-be-held- accountable-for-my-actions' look firmly etched across his face. So help him, if she tried to flirt with him. he'd had enough women coming up to him on the street asking for phone numbers.  
  
As he approached the desk, he sorely wished he had remembered to bring his gun. Maybe if he looked more threatening - as if the angry scowl on his face wasn't enough - she wouldn't be sitting there looking so damned cheerful.  
  
"Can I help you?" he asked gruffly.  
  
The receptionist only smiled brightly, oblivious to the dour expression on his face. After giving him a once over and realizing he was in fact a man, she purred appreciatively. "Actually, sir, I was hoping I could help you."  
  
'Dear Buddha, I do not have time for this.'  
  
"Oh?" Only Wufei's many years of training managed to keep his face calm and neutral.  
  
The receptionist pouted at his non-reaction. "Well, I guess you're not much for jokes, huh?" When Wufei did not respond, she continued to prattle on about how she had mistaken him for a woman because of his short stature - he hadn't grown all that much in his three years as a Preventer - and his, as she put it, 'oh-so-gorgeous' face. Never mind the fact that his was completely dressed in a man's uniform and looked nothing like a woman.  
  
".Anyway, I saw some of your co-workers leave just a couple minutes ago, so I figured-"  
  
Wufei shot her another impatient glare. "You assumed that I was here for the same reason." Startled by his tone, the receptionist only nodded. Wufei resisted the urge to snort; if anything, he hated having his time wasted. It was such a precious thing. "Just tell me the room number."  
  
"419. take the elevator on the left."  
  
Wufei left without so much as a thank you.  
  
~~  
  
When he entered the room he was greeted with white everything, double by the smell of sterile cleanness. Wufei hadn't expected much else - it was a hospital after all - but he hated it nonetheless. He despised hospitals; they left him with a sense of finality. If nothing else, Wufei hated finality.  
  
"Well, well," Wufei started at the sound of the room's sole occupant. Looking up, he spotted a young woman sitting on the bed. Blonde, wavy hair framed her face obscuring it from view as she sat hunched over a pile of cards that lay sprawled across the bed sheet.  
  
"Look who it is." She hadn't looked up once from her game - somehow she knew it was him without even having to.  
  
He shuffled his feet uncertainly. She just sat there, wearing nothing but a black sports bra and a pair of pajama pants and yet she somehow managed to make him seem undignified. How? He took notice of the bandages secured tightly around her torso. "Should you be sitting up like that?"  
  
She shrugged, looking up at him with sky blue eyes. "Don't know," she answered. "Though I suppose now I should be keeling over in shock - didn't expect to see you here."  
  
Wufei huffed indignantly. Insufferable woman. "I'm surprised you haven't yet," he remarked offhandedly. "What with all the fuss everyone is making over you."  
  
She snickered into her deck of cards, once again focused on them rather than him. "But then you would have wasted your oh-so-precious time to come out here," She flipped a card, placing it onto on of the piles furthest away from her. "And we can't have that, can we?"  
  
"Be satisfied," he replied. "I could have stayed at work-"  
  
"Another extra 15 minutes?" she asked, an amused smirk making its way up her face. Given her amiable attitude, the bandages she sported at her waist coupled with those on the side of her face looked almost comical. "You sure know how to make a woman feel special, don't you, Wu-chan?"  
  
She was the only one he'd allow to call him that, though to the day he had know idea why. However, he snorted disdainfully for show, gesturing towards the stand next to her bed. "I sent you those, didn't I?"  
  
Her gaze wandered from her game of Solitaire over to the clear vase full of beautiful yellow roses. She reached over, despite the protest of her injuries, to finger on of the soft petals. She smiled thoughtfully. Yellow roses symbolized friendship, didn't they?  
  
"So you did." She turned back to him, her expression suddenly solemn. "You know you don't have to do this, Wu-chan."  
  
Wufei blinked in confusion. "The flowers?" What, didn't women like those sorts of things? "It's really not that important, you know."  
  
Sally Po, Wufei's partner of three years, shook her head in that motherly way she was so accustomed to. Wufei suddenly felt uneasy; he knew just where this was heading. Since she had convinced him to join the Preventers Organization, Sally had made a habit of treating him as though he were under her protection. She'd baby him and tease him as if he were her little brother. True he hadn't felt all that bothered by it at first, but now for some reason, he had grown to hate it. Somehow he knew, that today he was going to have to tell her so.  
  
"Just look at you, Wufei," she replied. "You're a mess."  
  
Of course, Wufei had already known that, but having Sally say it forced him to look himself over self-consciously. There was a time when he had always striven to keep his appearance neat and organized. If the way he had thrown on his uniform didn't say it then the look on his face did. He wasn't filthy or unkempt, mind you; he went about his tasks in the same way as usual - now he just looked as though he just didn't give a damn. Just when had he let himself go?  
  
Sally was still speaking however, and he forced himself to listen if not only to hear the sound of her voice. "The others told me, you know." Feeling her gaze still on him, he looked out the window, suddenly aware of the rhythmic pitter-pattering of the rain outside the window. "You work all these hours at the office non-stop, practically forcing yourself away from the office at quitting time."  
  
She paused, making a 'tch'-ing sound. "It's pointless, Wu, punishing yourself and becoming a workaholic is not going to make up for what happened."  
  
Wufei turned on her, eyes angry. "You don't know that!" he spat. He flinched, staring down at the bandages on his partner's body. And he knew - despite what she or anyone else said - that their being there was his fault.  
  
~~  
  
They had been given an assignment to check out a warehouse located on one of the newly constructed colonies. It was alleged that some organization had been illegally manufacturing and storing weapons in that location with the ESUN's knowing. However, once they had arrived on the scene to investigate, all hell broke loose.  
  
Everyone who had been inside the warehouse scattered, the team had split up and Wufei and Sally had gone on foot after the ringleader who had slipped out the back way. They ran down alleyways, over trashcans, through backyards and over fences doing all in their power to keep the perpetrator in their sights.  
  
Wufei remembered watching Sally - as he had been doing for sometime - as she ran beside him. The way her chest rose and fell with each breath she took, the way her eyes shone with her determination, the way her hair shined as the light hit it a certain way, the way her legs and arms propelled her body forward; it scared him. He'd never had these thoughts about her in such away before, and yet they all rushed towards him so quickly, leaving him with an aching feeling he didn't know how to handle. It scared him and shamed him so badly it kept him up at night. He wasn't supposed to have these thoughts about her - she was his partner!  
  
"Dragon!" He looked up at the call of his codename to see Sally jump onto a low scaffold six or seven feet above of the ground her their man. "Wake up and help me, damn it!"  
  
Scowling, Wufei remembered feeling a burning sensation within him. Even out on the field she treated him as though he were someone she had to look after her. When was she going to realize he was no longer a boy but a man? How could he have felt so much as even an inkling of attraction for the woman?  
  
He raised his gun, firing a shot that nailed the man in the arm. In reaction, he lashed out, pistol whipping Sally with the butt of his gun. He remembered Sally crying out as blood began to run freely down the side of her face, but she did not fall. She continued to wrestle the perpetrator to the ground - as a true Preventer should - whilst Wufei could do nothing but watch helplessly. The last thing he remembered was a shot ringing out and Sally falling to the ground.  
  
~~  
  
Once again, he shifted uneasily. It had been a moment of weakness; inattentiveness on his part. Things like this were just not supposed to happen. And yet, she only looked at him sympathetically as if she were the one to blame.  
  
This was not how he had planned for things to go. She was supposed to be angry with him! She was supposed to yell and scream, and hate him! Damn the woman! And damn the things she was making him feel! It wasn't supposed to be like this. Wufei had to put an end to it now.  
  
"What do you want me to say?" he snapped, feeling suddenly irritable.  
  
She looked perplexed. "I didn't want you to say anything." She replied.  
  
"Then stop talking down to me as if I were your child," he spat. "You know as well as I do the risk involved in our line of work - stress included."  
  
"Yes, of course-"  
  
"Do not try to baby me or fuss over me - I am a grown man, not your little brother or your child. I am your partner, so start treating me like it!" 'So I can stop feeling this way.' The disgust Wufei felt, shown plainly on his face, was directed solely at himself. Were these words really coming out of his mouth? If he was so much a man, why was he taking the coward's way out?  
  
The room fell silent as the last of Wufei' words left his lips. He kept his eyes narrowed on Sally, who remained silent. She sported a hurt, but apologetic look on her face, but she did nothing but idly toy with a card from her deck - the Ace of Hearts.  
  
Wishing she would do something, anything - yell, scream, whatever - rather than sit there and toy with that ridiculous piece of cardboard, he squared his shoulders, schooling his features into an emotionless mask. "Do we understand each other, Agent Water?"  
  
She flinched then, but remained silent a moment longer, rubbing absently at her side. Funny how it was the first time she had done it since he entered the room. However, realizing what she was doing, she pulled her hand away. She scrounged up a smile, which even to Wufei, looked phony.  
  
She raised her hand, throwing a smart salute before speaking, "Perfectly, Agent Dragon," Something flickered and died in her eyes, but Wufei ignored it. "Perfectly."  
  
Wufei nodded stiffly, before turning away from him. Her expression was just too painful to focus on. It was better this way, wasn't it? 'No. you're just being a coward and running away.'  
  
He'd hurt her - badly. He knew it just as well as he knew his own name. Without another word, he exited the room, closing the door behind him.  
  
As the door clicked shut, the hollow, empty feeling he had experienced upon entering the hospital returned to him; Sally's empty smile and dying eyes burned permanently behind his eyes. Once again, under the dull lights of the hospital lobby, Wufei felt fake, shallow. He left the hospital without looking back, all the while feeling as though he had just lost something very important to him.  
  
~End  
  
Author's Notes -  
  
Man. and to think the first draft was only 4 pages. what happened? ::shrugs:: Oh well.  
  
Why is it I portray all my favorite male characters to be such assholes? Nataku-chan does it too with Inu Yasha.  
  
Nataku-chan - Well, he can be a prick.  
  
Yeah, I guess Wufei can be, too. But we love you anyway, Wu-chan!  
  
Wufei - ::scowls from his little corner:: Be silent, harpies.  
  
Aww! Isn't he just sooo cute! ::she and Nataku-chan attack him with hugs:: Lemme know what you think about this one, guys! And rest assured another chapter of Don't You Dare will be up either later on today or tomorrow!  
  
Wufei - Depending upon whether she gets off of her womanish lazy ass to type it up! ::cringes as they continue to hug him::  
  
Nataku-chan - Don'cha just love'im? He's too cute!!  
  
Wufei - @_@; 


End file.
